Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Malaysia scored a '5', and that is very bad... a rating of '5' means

5• No guarantee of rights • Score: 36+• Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

Malaysia among 24 'worst countries for workers': 2014 survey

According to the recently
released findings of a global survey of working conditions in 139
countries, Malaysia is ranked as one of the worst 24 countries in the
world for workers.

Bad news for salary earners in Malaysia: you’re currently working in
one of the world’s 24 worst countries for workers, according to a new
survey report, where despite the existence of “legislation that may
spell out certain rights, workers effectively have no access to these
rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour
practices.”

Malaysia – one of the world's 24 worst
countries for workers: A woman (above) seen working in a charcoal
factory in Kuala Sepetang, Perak in 2009. – Reuters

Released on May 19, the survey report – aptly titled Global Rights Index: The World’s Worst Countries For Workers
– was compiled by the Geneva-based International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) based on information from its network of affiliates
including the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations
during the survey period from April 2013 to March 2014.

In the survey, countries are given a ranking of between 1 and 5 –
with 1 representing the best and 5 the worst. The ranking is based on
how countries scored against a checklist of 97 indicators that look at
incidences of violations of workers’ rights and their severity.

Global Rights Index 2014: The World's Worst Countries For
Workers - an overall breakdown of how countries ranked, with mention of
ASEAN countries.

Ranking

Meaning of Ranking

Number of Countries

5+

No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown
of the rule of law

8

5

No guarantee of rights

24 (Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos
& the Philippines)

4

Systematic violation of rights

30 (Indonesia, Myanmar &Thailand)

3

Regular violation of rights

33 (Singapore)

2

Repeated violation of rights

26

1

Irregular violation of rights

18

Malaysia earned its rating of 5 mostly because of institutional
factors that hamper workers’ ability to form trade unions and strike
against unfair labour practices. The survey cited key incidents that happened in the country as evidence for why we rank so low.

We are not alone, however, as we share the dishonour with
neighbouring ASEAN countries Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
Singapore earned the highest ranking of 3 among the ASEAN countries
while Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand managed a ranking of 4. Vietnam
and Brunei were absent from the list.

A special ranking of 5+ is given to countries where “the rule of law
has completely broken down and workers get no protection whatsoever”.
Eight countries received this lowest-of-the-low ranking: Central African
Republic, Libya, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and
Ukraine.

The survey also said that, of the 139 countries surveyed, only one
country managed to clear all the indicators on their checklist. Denmark,
which is grouped together with 17 other countries ranked 1, is the
world’s best country for workers.

Key findings

While the worst-ranked countries may have been expected for some,
it’s disconcerting to note that a few developed countries are ranked
very low in the survey. One shocking entry was the US, which only got a
ranking of 4, embarrassing especially when compared to archrival Russia
which ranked 2.

While a few of the 18 countries ranked 1 are known to have a good
rights track record – Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway
and the Netherlands – they also revealed the surprising fact that
neither a high level of GDP nor technological advancement is a necessary
prerequisite for the protection of worker’s rights.

The top-ranked include the island nations of Barbados, Iceland, and
Togo and former Eastern-bloc nations Estonia, Lithuania, Montenegro and
Slovakia. Rounding out the top-ranked list are Uruguay, South Africa and
Italy.

Other findings by ITUC while conducting the survey give cause for
concern. The report said that “in the past year, governments of at least
35 countries have arrested or imprisoned workers as a tactic to resist
demands for democratic rights, decent wages, safer working conditions
and secure jobs” and that “laws and practices in at least 87 countries
exclude certain type of workers from the right to strike.”

Not mincing words, the survey report was also critical of the World
Bank’s previous labour recommendations. The ITUC team hoped that its
survey “will redress the misconception championed by the World Bank’s
‘Doing Business’ report that driving down labour standards is good for
business”, adding that the World Bank’s recommendation was “unacceptable
for an organisation that claims to be committed to poverty reduction.

Number of Visits

By 15th June 2008, we 1,328,396 visits...and by 2010, we would have easily crossed the 2 million mark..We started counting visits again in May 2010, and soon we expect to be crossed the million mark yet again. As such, we have had over 3 million visits to our site. On an average, we have about 700-750 visits per day.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement..

I believe in the freedom of expression - and everyone is free to use, reproduce, quote, copy and circulate, etc... materials published here. Please credit the source: http://charleshector.blogspot.com/.

For those of you who do have Blogs/Websites, it would be good if you could add a link to CHARLES HECTOR Blog. Please do promote the BLOG.

Anonymous comments or those containing profanities and obscenities (or irrelevant matters) will be rejected.